


A regular day at the office

by Pearlislove



Series: Infuriating and in love [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Combinding New & Classic Who, Developing Friendships, F/M, Gen, Post-Episode: s07e04 The Power of Three, UNIT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-09 19:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12894822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Kate ment to have a regular day at the officeThen The Doctor happenedAnd Doctor Elizabeth ShawSuddenly, it wasn't such an ordinary day anymore. Just by UNIT standards.





	A regular day at the office

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic had three clear reasons for it it's creation:
> 
> I love Liz Shaw
> 
> I love Liz Shaw/The Brigadier
> 
> I wanted to write about Liz Shaw/The Brigadier
> 
> There is a special edition of this fanfic with GIFS on my Tumblr:
> 
> https://gemvictorfromtheponyverse.tumblr.com/post/168057568799/a-regular-day-at-the-office-gif-version-my

"And this, Doctor, would be my office." Kate gestured around the room, smiling with pride and content as she watched the baffled Time Lord have a look around. Only a few weeks after the slow invasion, and he had come back, asking for a better view of the grounds. He had claimed he wanted to learn to get to know the new UNIT facilities, and Kate had been quick to please.   
  
"I like it." The Doctor answered looking around the bland walls and simple furniture. It wasn't much for the eye to behold, but somehow it felt fitting. "It's very...you-ish" He fumbled with the words, trying to find a good reply when he barely knew the woman, and decidedly did not wish to comment on how it reminded him of the Brigadier's. At the stage they were at, it was too presumptuous, and The Doctor didn't want the woman to feel as though she was nothing but a bleak copy of her father.   
  
"I'm glad. I rather like it myself." Kate smiled, and The Doctor took in her every detail, despite himself calculating how many of them he could clearly tell had come from her father. Kate Stewart had a lot of her father in her, but there was other components too, and for the first time, The Doctor started to consider who Kate's mother might have been.   
  
At the same time as the thought hit him, his eyes latched onto a framed photo standing on Kate's desk. It seemed to be the only personal item in the room, and The Doctor was instantly intrigued. Walking closer, he could soon see that it was a picture of Kate, quite a lot younger than she was now by the looks of it. She was in a bikini, lying on top a towel on a beach somewhere. Lying next to her was an older woman, with a fifties-style swimsuit and graying red hair that fell in soft waves over her shoulders. The two women were leaning against one another, smiling at the person behind the camera.   
  
Though years had past, and she had aged, it was still impossible for The Doctor to be mistaken about who the woman beside Kate was. From the frame, the answer stared back at him in the form of kind, dark eyes and a reserved smile. "Elizabeth Shaw?" He asked, confused and surprised. The Brigadier had always had a fondness for the woman, he knew, but this ...   
  
Kate laughed, seeing his confusion and enjoying it. "Yes, brilliant brilliant Doctor Shaw. Liz and dad made each other very happy those last few years." She smiled sadly, feeling just a slight twinge of pain deep within her chest. Almost a year onwards, and she missed her father still.   
  
The Doctor's head shot up, eyes looking away from the photo to meet Kate’s. "Is she...? Did she...I mean I haven't heard but..." He stopped, the words stocking in his throat. The pain of losing The Brigadier was still quite fresh, and he wasn't  sure if he could handle losing Liz, too. It’d be too much.   
  
Quickly understanding what The Doctor was trying to say, Kate shook her head defiantly.. "No. God no. She's still alive and kicking, thankfully. She is too stubborn not to hold on. The trips to the moonbase will have to wait, though.”

 

The Doctor let out a sigh of relief, relaxing. Liz was still alive, after all. Refusing to give up, refusing to give in, just like his Liz had always been. “Good, good. But...the UNIT moonbase?” The last part of what Kate said surprised him. He hadn’t known Liz had been at the moonbase, nor that she returned to UNIT, as she must have done in order to have something to do with the moonbase.   
  
"She came back to UNIT, Doctor. Found her way home in the end. Cambridge could only hold her for so long, and after she and dad married...well, I think it only made her want it more. The moonbase project ended up being her little baby, and I doubt we'd have made it without her." Kate smiled, taking in the look on The Doctor's face as even more question appeared in his head. He was so adorable and innocent this go around, and Kate cherished it.

 

The silence stretched out between them as The Doctor thought and Kate waited for him to finish thinking. Evidently there was a lot going on in his mind, and she saw no reason to rush him.   
  
"The Brigadier and Liz married?" Finally The Doctor was ready to ask his next question,  and now Kate felt surprised, too, because she had never realised that The Doctor didn't know. "And I thought...what about Doris?" He fiddled with his bowtie, apparently anxious as he looked at the photo again. It seemed today was a day of revelations, and every question set him back another ten as he realized how much it was that he’d never known about those he loved the most.   
  
"She died, Doctor, in the nineties. Nothing else to it. Dad found Liz afterwards and they married in 2005. I reckon at least one of your incarnations was there, if not more." Kate smiled kindly, leaning against her desk. She didn’t mind filling in The Doctor on the missing information, even if she was surprised he didn’t know.   
  
"Hmm, I can't remember it, so presumably it's all in my future, and any past self's of mine in attendance has had their memories blocked due to the paradox." The Doctor tilted his head to the side, not feeling much wiser than when the conversation started. Instead, he observed Kate, measuring her and trying to figure out how much of Liz he could see in her. They certainly had the same kind of smile, and those eyes...   
  
Could Liz have been Kate's mother? The Doctor didn't know. He knew it wasn't Doris, for Kate must have been born by the time she and The Brigadier had become a couple in the early eighties. But Liz? They may have married later, but they had had a  _ thing  _ while Liz was still UNIT employed, which, he was beginning to realise, could technically have been the making of the woman before him. Swallowing dryly, The Doctor decided that it may not be the right thing to ask if she was the result of a secret affair by two UNIT employees which had technically not been allowed to date, and tried to think of something else to talk about.

  
  


“Doctor, is everything alright?” Watching him carefully, Kate could see The Doctor drifting away into thought. His forehead wrinkled and he gnawed away on his lips as something seemed to concern him. The more he thought, the more it seemed to concern him. Finally, Kate felt as though she had to ask if he was alright.

 

“Huh?” The Doctor startled, realising he had drifted off completely as he thought about what to say to Kate, trying to separate his thoughts from what was actually coming out of his mouth. “I was just...thinking”

 

“About what?” Kate lifted an eyebrow, observing The Doctor critically. Her arms crossed and she took a slightly aggressive stance.

 

“Who is your mother?” Finally, it slipped out of his mouth. The Doctor had been holding on to the question for so long, trying to be respectful and nice, before it finally escaped from his mouth. 

 

Kate laughed, too surprised and shocked to manage anything else. “What? Doctor, why…” She trailed off, not sure how to complete the sentence. Not sure why he’d even ask.

 

“I...I just wanted to know. You look so much like The Brigadier, but there is something else, and...and I don’t know.” The Doctor waved his arms in the air, trying to convey his message but having run out of words to use. 

 

Kate sigh. The Doctor always got what he wanted, no matter what. “My mother’s name was Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart. My dad’s first wife. They separated in 1970. I was 5. Haven’t seen her since I was 17.” Kate tried to smile, but it was hard, because she hated talking about her mother.

 

Hearing this, The Doctor laughed, his whole face lighting up. He kept laughing for a while but didn’t explain it.

 

“What’s so funny, Doctor?” Kate frowned, crossing her arms and taking on her defencive stance once more. She had shared something personal for his sake and he was laughing her straight in the face without reason or explanation. Though Kate didn’t want to be mad at The Doctor, it hurt.

 

“I thought Liz was your mom.” His grin is ridiculously big, and he is clearly stifling the rest of his laughter as he finally explained was was so funny. “Kate Stewart, I honestly thought you were the child of Liz and The Brig?”

 

Hearing this, Kate’s face lit up as well. Fruitlessly, she attempted to stifle an entirely undignified giggle. “Be careful of what you say, Doctor” Kate warned, smiling. “She’ll kill you if she hear you!”

 

"You're right, Kate, I just might" An all too familiar voice echoed through the small office, and when Kate and The Doctor finally dare to turn around, they are faced with the woman who they knew the voice belonged to.

 

Standing in the doorway, hands on her hips and an amused smile on her lips, was Doctor Elizabeth Shaw. Though years had passed since The Doctor last saw her, it was impossible to doubt who the woman before him was. One look at Kate's surprised face confirmed what he already knew, and The Doctor coughed awkwardly as he tried to think of something to say.

 

“I didn’t mean it.” Was the first words to slip out of his mouth, and he blushed bashfully.

 

Liz laughed. Her stern face opened up, and she laughed heartily. “You don’t need to apologise, Doctor! There has certainly been worse things than people assuming Kate to be my daughter.”

 

“You have the same attitude. And smile. And eyes. Really, that stare of your. You sure you’re not related?” Finally having found his words again, The Doctor started blabbering away, hardly able to help it.

 

“Sorry Liz, The Doctor does what The Doctor does.” Kate smiled, not really embarrassed but apologising nonetheless. Considering the subject of the conversation they’d just had, she deserved it.

 

“It’s fine, Kate, I know what the man’s like.” Liz smiled at her step-daughter, before looking back at The Doctor. He looked nothing like  _ her  _ Doctor, of course, but then again - she probably didn’t look anything like his Liz anymore either. “She is not my daughter, Doctor. At least not biologically. Me and The Brig started dating long after the ‘having kids’ stage in our lives passed. The closest thing I ever did was marry myself to someone who had one.” She glanced at Kate, before quickly refocusing on The Doctor as she held up her left hand to show him her wedding rings.

 

“Oh, yes, talking of that… I apologise in advance for any inappropriate behaviour I may or may not have displayed at the wedding. As it seems, it is in my future still, and I can’t say I remember it very well. Or at all.” The Doctor grinned, and the other two women laughed.

 

“Well, I remember it clearly. “ Kate cut in. “And i doubt Liz is going to forget it in a long time yet.” She smiled smugly, giving Liz a knowing look, making The Doctor wonder exactly what he had done.

 

“Oh, yes, but I think that’s a story for another time.” Liz agreed, looking at straight at The Doctor, who nodded along without knowing what they were referring to.

 

“Yes I do believe it’s a tale for another time.”

  
  
  
  
  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment it makes my day!


End file.
